Archive

Through his encyclopedic study of the electron, an obscure figure named Stefano Laporta found a handle on the subatomic world’s fearsome complexity. His algorithm has swept the field.

The Chinese remainder theorem is an ancient and powerful extension of the simple math of least common multiples.

Ana Caraiani seeks to unify mathematics through her work on the ambitious Langlands program.

Quantum bits are fussy and fragile. Useful quantum computers will need to use an error-correction technique like the one that was recently demonstrated on a real machine.

Results from neural networks support the idea that brains are “prediction machines” — and that they work that way to conserve energy.

In nonreciprocal systems, where Newton’s third law falls apart, “exceptional points” are helping researchers understand phase transitions and possibly other phenomena.

Physicists are translating commonsense principles into strict mathematical constraints on how our universe must have behaved at the beginning of time.

New work establishes a tighter connection between the rank of a polynomial and the extent to which it favors particular outputs.

The brain not only helps to regulate immune responses, but also stores and retrieves “memories” of them.